NTLDR is missing??? Weird!

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by Saigonian, Nov 21, 2006.

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  1. Saigonian

    Saigonian Registered Member

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    Hi all,
    I recently had this problem:
    After I restored my computer from a True Image backup, my computer start-up with an error:
    "NTLDR is missing
    Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot"


    And it's always end up with that error even you rebooted your computer a thousand times. Lucky, I found a solution to fix it, but today, I have to post this up because I wonder: Why it is missing since I did a full backup of my system drive?
    I know, True Image doesn't work like Ghost: Completely clone a whole hard drive. True Image only backup those file that it needed (except temporary files). But why doesn't it backup those boot up files?
    I'm lucky that I have 2 computers and I use the other one to solve the problem. What if I have only one computer? I have to reinstall everything, including Windows because my backup was useless!

    True Image's Developers, please pay attention on this problem and have TI backup all those important files also!
    Thank you so much for a wonderful software. But you know, it needs to be better!

    Saigonian
    P.s: Pardon my English.
     
  2. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    Charlotte NC
    Acronis does not work exactly like Ghost but it does create an exact image of you hard drive. Did you backup and restore a partition only and not the MBR? If you did not select DISK then you only backed up the partition and not the MBR. I've backed up and restored many times with out seeing this issue. You can download the following ISO file to recreate the MBR. Look here for some help https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=55317 and here to download the file http://www.acronis.com/files/support/mbrautowrite_en.iso
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2006
  3. angusn77

    angusn77 Registered Member

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    How did you fix this issue?

    Thanks!
     
  4. Saigonian

    Saigonian Registered Member

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    Hi thomasjk, and thanks for replying. How's Charlotte now? I used to live in Charlotte, NC for a year. Missing it so much!

    Normally, I do a full backup of my system drive and always like that without any problem. One day, I installed a software (Pinnacle System) but I don't like it and my computer seems so slow, I restored my computer from a previous backup and oops, it came up like that! NTLDR is missing, Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.
    I did another restore from that backup image. Same thing! I tried one more time, same thing. I took another images that I backed up to DVD before, yes, same thing happened!
    I used True Image for more than 18 months and never had any kind of such problem!
    So I figured out that True Image does not backup those important files, if it did, then why do I have that problem?

    Lucky me, I have another computer and get online, google for it. I found a disc image that can help me boot up to Windows, all I have to do is just copy those files from that image to C: drive and..boom, everything back to normal!
    I put this up because I know there are someone might have this issue also and to get True Image's developers' attention and hope that they will fix it soon!

    Best regards,
    Saigonian
     
  5. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    Charlotte NC
    Right now Charlotte is cold and rainy 43F. Just got power back after 9 hours.

    Saigonian, I disagree Acronis does copy those files. I have just recently restored from backups and I can tell you that the files needed do get backed up and restored properly. You didn't answer my question concerning how you restored. What Version and Build number are you using? Look at the attached image showing NTLDR that is included in the image I backed up last night. You may want to check out this article on fixing problems with XP:
    http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=313.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Nov 22, 2006
  6. Saigonian

    Saigonian Registered Member

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    Wow, that's cold huh? I'm living in Vietnam now and it's HOT! Almost 95F in day time!

    Thanks Thomasjk, I just checked it by mounting the backup image and found those files are in there. (This is the first time I know how to use this function of True Image!). Now, there is another question from me. If it is included in the image, then why it's missing even I restored it from a good condition image?
    I only use the Full Disk/Partition backup and restore, never use any other function of True Image (such as MBRs, Folders, Files....etc). Yeah, I did the back up and restore process many times and this is the first time I see this error.
    Since I know it's a major problem (there's even a website only for discussing it) and I found it in True Image, so I post it here with hope that it can help any other users encounter the same thing.

    P.s: Sorry, I forgot, I'm using True Image Home Edition 9.1. Thank you so much, Thomasjk, for all of your helps and discussing. Have a great day!

    Saigonian
     
  7. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    You're welcome Saigonian. We were in Ho Chi Minh city in September on a cruise. Enjoyed our too short stay there.
     
  8. gbohn

    gbohn Registered Member

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    I don't know if this is your problem or not, but if True Image somehow changed the partition numbering scheme, then you may need to update BOOT.INI to match the new partition number for Windows.

    I don't know why it's this way, but even after you start to Boot Win XP, the information in BOOT.INI needs to have the correct matching partition number information. If not, it seems to look on the wrong partition for various boot files and then complains it can't find them.

    Since BOOT.INI is hidden, you need to unhide it before you can change it.

    Hope that helps.

    -Greg
     
  9. Saigonian

    Saigonian Registered Member

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    Hi Greg,
    Thank you so much for your reply. I think it is exactly the same problem that you stated above. Because I used a boot CD to get into Windows, copy Boot.ini from that CD to C drive including the NTLDR files, reboot without that CD and everything back to normal.
    It's already fixed before I put up this thread, but your help made me sure about what happened and what I did is right.
    Thank you so much.
    Best regards,
    Saigonian
     
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